“I want in on some of that action.” Jimmy crossed to the telephone and began punching in numbers. “I’ve not squirreled away as much as you have, but I can manage enough. Hell, I’ll sell the Corvettes if I have to.”
“You have a Corvette?” Nancy asked in surprise. “We’ve been driving around in my little box, and you own a Corvette?”
JD handed her a peanut butter cracker. “A new Corvette, three antique Corvettes, a Cadillac STS, and the worst collection of Chevy trucks you’ll ever find. He’s certifiable.”
“Never drove a Geo,” Jimmy mumbled through a cracker as he waited for someone to answer the phone on the other end. “Foreign cars, hate ’em. But if Chevy—” He turned back to speak into the phone.
“Well, then,” Nina said brightly, “sounds as if everything will end happily ever after. I guess I’d better go back to my geraniums.”
“Good idea,” JD said, capturing her against the counter with one hand on either side of her. “Only one little problem.”
Breathless at the close contact, Nina tried to make herself smaller. “Oh, and what is that?”
“I called the cops and had a long talk with them about DiFrancesco and my uncle. They should be searching his house for a weapon right about now. Guess who will be gunning for me when he finds out?”
Chapter 31
“If they find the gun, they’ll lock DiFrancesco up, JD. There’s nothing to worry about.” Nina eased away from him, pretending to examine a bush she’d already thoroughly examined earlier. It was easier than standing close to JD in the midnight garden.
It was impossible to escape JD. He came up behind her, catching her waist and pulling her back against him. Her head rested on his shoulder, and his encompassing arms offered the strength she’d never possessed. It would be so easy to pretend she could count on that welcome embrace forever. But she’d never had much success lying to herself.
“I just don’t think going back to Madrid right now is the safest thing for you to do.” JD’s hand wandered, caressing lightly. “Staying with me is probably wrong, too. I could send you to San Diego. You could visit the zoo. Anything to keep you out of DiFrancesco’s range until this is all over.”
Nina shivered as the hand on her breast pulled erotic chords. She would never feel his caress again once she left here, she knew. He would immerse himself in his own world. He’d never have time to visit an out-of-the-way place like Madrid, Kentucky. The nearest airport was well over an hour away. But if she would never see him again, wouldn’t it be easier to make the break now, before she fell any deeper?
“You said you talked to Hoyt and the Mercedes is gone. I’ll be safe enough. Coming after me won’t save DiFrancesco’s stock from plummeting or keep the police from finding the gun if he truly did murder your uncle. He’ll probably be in jail by the time I get home. I think it’s best if I leave now, JD.”
Instead of releasing her, he held her tighter. Above the tangle of palm leaves, a desert sky sprinkled myriad stars, and Nina wanted nothing more than to forget the rest of the world in JD’s arms. He could do it so easily, chase away her problems, make the world go away. But she didn’t think she could afford the price.
“Was it something I said?” he asked carefully. “I didn’t mean to ignore you all day. It’s just sometimes I—”
Nina vigorously shook her head. “Don’t be silly. You didn’t ignore me. You didn’t say anything. I just came out here to see that you’re safe, and now it looks as if you are. I have my own life, JD.”
He loosened his hold but continued idly rubbing his hand up and down her hip. “All right. You’re worried about the garden. I can understand that. Just don’t go yet. Wait a little while, until I’m sure it’s safe.”
His argument was scarcely persuasive, but his hand was. Nina tried stepping away, but cement encased her feet. The roar of a car engine caught her attention, and she jerked her head in the direction of the gate.
“JD, someone’s out there.”
It was well after midnight now. The owner of the house was in France. No one should be out there.
JD shoved Nina toward the house. “Warn Jimmy. Call the police. If anyone tries to breach the gate, it’s supposed to notify security, but let’s not take chances.”
Nina caught his arm. “Wait! Where are you going?”
JD grabbed her by the waist, planted a hungry kiss on her mouth, and pushed her away again. “Over the wall. If it’s DiFrancesco, he wants me. I’ll distract him.”
“JD, you impossible idiot...” But he had already disappeared into the shadows of the shrubbery.
***
Slipping down secluded walks, JD hurried in the direction of the gate. He might know more about machinery than people, but instinct drove him to protect what was his. Nina was his. He’d not let anyone touch her.
He shoved through the shrubbery until he reached the base of the wall. He could hear someone fiddling with the gate. Why didn’t the security alarm go off?
He hadn’t thought DiFrancesco could find him so easily. If he’d thought at all, he would have figured the financier as the sort to run. But, as usual, he hadn’t given it any thought. This time, his damned impulsiveness could hurt innocents. He’d never forgive himself if anything happened to Nina. She’d left her safe little world for his sake.
His foot found a grip between blocks of the wall. He could reach DiFrancesco before he broke through the gate. Quietly, he dropped into the darkness beyond the garden wall.
***
Staring uncertainly at the place where JD had disappeared, Nina was startled by the screech of metal. JD had never checked the gate mechanism. It might hold. She could just be indulging in her usual paranoia. But living in a house with erratic electricity had taught her caution.
Throwing a glance over her shoulder, deciding she was closer to the gate than the house, Nina dashed along hidden pathways to an observation point she had discovered earlier. She’d explored for hours this afternoon while JD worked. She put what she’d learned to good use now.
From the fountain wall she could see a low-slung black Porsche revving its engines in front of the gate. Behind it was the Mercedes. The damned Mercedes. Or one just like it. A man stood at the security gate, playing with the buttons that signaled the house. If Jimmy and Nancy hadn’t already gone to bed, they’d know they had company now.
The gate creaked again. No security alarms clamored. For a terrifying moment, Nina wondered if the owner had returned from France. Did JD really have permission to use this place?
And then she saw the machine gun.
She didn’t know a thing about guns. It could be an Uzi or whatever criminals used these days. She just knew it had a short barrel and a thick stock and didn’t resemble any kind of rifle she knew. And JD was out there somewhere.
She thought she saw his shadow darting along the high block wall as the gate creaked open. She heard a shout as the man at the box shoved past the gate with his gun. She didn’t hear any gunfire yet, but she wasn’t waiting to take chances.
Hitting the control mechanism she’d found earlier by the fountain, Nina shot arrows of water into the air. The sprinkler system roared to life, soaking the guy with the gun. His curses turned the air blue as she dashed for the garage.
“He’s over here, boss! I’ve got him!”
The shout coursed down her spine, but Nina kept running, praying.
“There’s more in here. Grab him before they call security!”
More than one man darted through the gate and over the wall. Nina heard an ominous thud that very much sounded like a body landing on metal, hollow metal, like a car. The Porsche was easing through the half-open gate now. Where the devil was JD?
Panting, Nina located the side door into the garage. The Rolls had fascinated her earlier. After a dozen years of driving that tiny, rusty Camry, a luxurious car like this one couldn’t have done anything else but fascinate her. It smelled new. The glossy paint glimmered even in the dim light of the gara
ge. She hadn’t dared turn on the engine, but she knew where the keys were. They hung on a board right by the door, neatly labeled.
The shouts sounded louder now. Whoever was out there had scattered all through the yard, and the sprinkler system worked overtime to drown them. She’d never heard such cursing since the principal had invaded the boys’ bathroom and caught them smoking. Surely, if these men had caught JD, they wouldn’t still be out there running around in the water.
That thought exploded when she heard a triumphant cry from the direction of the gate. “He’s here, boss! I got him. F—” The curse was cut off in an alarming screech of pain.
Playing harder now, Nina grabbed the keys and, with trembling fingers, swung open the car door. She didn’t know a thing about driving a car like this one. She prayed it had an automatic transmission. She should have learned a standard, but Hattie couldn’t drive. She’d had to teach herself.
She found the ignition, and the car rumbled to life. To her utter surprise and dismay, the garage door slowly opened of its own accord. She pulled a gear stick she prayed set the car into forward, and the huge automobile rolled in stately grace through the opening doorway.
Someone inside the house had turned on the floodlights. Thank God, Jimmy and Nancy must still be up. Maybe they’d called the police.
A sudden thought curled Nina’s toes. What if those goons had cut the telephone wires? That’s why the security alarm hadn’t gone off when the gate opened. They were out here in the middle of the desert, entirely on their own.
So much for damned technology.
The sound she’d feared most rattled the night silence. Gunfire.
Oh, God. Oh, God, don’t let it be JD. Not JD. It wouldn’t be fair.
Nina floored the accelerator.
The Rolls didn’t precisely roar. It glided. It glided faster. It rolled at warp speed directly toward the low-slung Porsche driving toward the house.
Hair-raising sirens screamed, cutting through the night air like silver swords. Alarm bells clamored. Floodlights swept the gardens like a prison security system. And dogs howled.
Dogs? Nina didn’t remember any dogs.
She couldn’t worry about them now. The Rolls had taken on a mind of its own. Taking her foot off the accelerator hadn’t helped. The huge machine rolled determinedly forward. The Porsche screeched to a halt, hesitated, and inched into reverse.
Silhouetted against the night sky, two men struggled on the wall. One had the very distinct physique she recognized as JD’s. The other had a gun.
Helpless, Nina pounded the steering wheel until she located the horn and leaned against it as the car moved forward.
The Porsche hurtled backward faster. The security gates slowly swung closed.
***
From his vantage point on top of the wall, JD saw the behemoth car illuminated in the floodlights. Like the Silver Shadow it was, the car drifted majestically forward all on its own. He couldn’t see Nina anywhere. JD prayed she had made it to the house, but even in his prayers he couldn’t believe she’d found the alarm system and set it off. Nina wouldn’t even know what an alarm system was.
He had both fists wrapped soundly around the barrel of the weapon that had threatened him earlier. The man holding it equally tightly had the advantage of height and weight, but he didn’t possess JD’s fury and fear. The idea of any of these goons laying hands on Nina gave him an impetus nothing else could have generated. With a cold-minded kick, JD’s foot shot up under his opponent’s guard, hurling him backward with a howl of agony.
He hadn’t been a marine for nothing. Breaking open the weapon, he emptied the cartridges in the mud and sand of the garden below, then flung it toward the cascading fountain. Terrible thing to use combat training defending a damned computer program. JD regretted not using the weapon as a club against the other man’s jaw, but he didn’t have time for additional violence.
Leaping down from the wall, he landed just in time to see the gate swing closed as the Porsche geared into reverse. The gate screeched like a cyclops in pain. The Porsche hit it with a clash of metal on metal. The Rolls continued moving forward, slowly crumpling inch after inch of the small car’s low-slung hood.
“Nina!” JD screamed, understanding now the source of the ghostly driver. “Hit reverse!”
Running, not bothering to dodge the streams of water shooting through the ground beneath him, JD lunged at the shadowy figure lurching from the driver’s seat of the Porsche.
They toppled into the mud not inches from the wheels of the Rolls. JD grabbed the driver’s wrist, knowing instinctively what he’d find there. The cold metal of the revolver brushed his fingers, but he couldn’t quite grip it as he struggled with the man beneath him.
In the distance, sirens screamed. Outside the gates, the Mercedes frantically blew its horn, then roared to life. The man beneath JD fought for freedom.
In horror, JD watched as slender ankles raced toward him instead of away. He couldn’t look up. Despite the man’s smaller size, he fought like a demon. Terrified the gun would go off, he concentrated all his attention on keeping that one hand pinned to the ground. He couldn’t get his knee into a position to do any good.
Damn Nina, she was running right for them. Was the woman insane?
Of course she was. Stupid question. Only an insane woman would have followed him into this mess.
A hard object whistled past JD’s nose, hitting with a hideous thud and exploding mud in his face. Cursing, he tightened his grip, but the man beneath him collapsed and stilled.
Grabbing the gun from lax fingers, JD shook his head and finally dared to look up.
The remains of a potted cactus sat on his assailant’s head, tilting dangerously to one side as the dirt from the broken pot washed away in the water from the sprinkler. JD’s gaze followed the slender legs upward until his battered concentration reached the edge of trim blue shorts. With a sigh of exasperation, he wrapped a muddy hand around her ankle and pulled himself up.
Nina practically collapsed in his arms.
Exhausted, exhilarated, JD held her tightly and let someone else fight with the wayward security gate as the blue lights of the police cars spilled into the drive.
***
“Trespassing and assault charges should hold DiFrancesco’s thugs for a little while.” Newly showered and dressed in clean jeans, JD shoved his wet hair from his face and kept a close eye on Nina as she wandered the far side of the kitchen. She’d stayed a safe distance from him ever since the police had arrived. He couldn’t blame her. She’d lived a sheltered life, and the instant he’d dropped into it, she’d been bombarded with reckless vans, dead bodies, and terrorist attacks. Her aunt Hattie would have shipped her off to an island somewhere if she’d been around.
JD felt like a dog begging for a bone as he followed her progress around the kitchen, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away. She’d already told the police she was leaving in the morning and given them her home address. He didn’t want her to go.
That was nonsense. He knew that. She’d hung in there through more than most women would have. But now she was leaving like all the others. The Marshall luck hadn’t changed any, then. He’d hoped, but that had only been his own wishful thinking.
She looked so damned good, like the ice cream cone with sprinkles he could never have when he was a kid. All that vanilla hair stood on end from being washed without drying.
Flushed slightly by these last days under a desert sun, Nina’s pale cheeks glowed, accenting the glitter of green eyes. She had on those blasted white leggings again, and JD could see every well-shaped curve as she polished china and neatly put it away. She’d made an accordion of a Porsche and turned a desert into a swamp, but she stood here neatly returning the kitchen to rights. Fool woman. Why did fearing he’d lost her hurt so?
“Did the police find the murder weapon?” Jimmy munched on cold pizza while Nancy poured him a drink from the remains of the bottle of Coke from the carry-out they’d order
ed after the police left.
“DiFrancesco collected guns. It will take them a while.” JD shrugged and looked at his own soft drink with distaste. He needed something stronger.
“Is he Mafia?” Nancy inquired uncertainly.
JD noticed Nina didn’t say a thing. She just polished china until she should have rubbed the design right off. He shrugged again. “The police haven’t found any connection. The other members of his consortium are squealing like pigs. They all swear they know nothing about theft or guns or murder. Maybe they don’t.”
“And maybe pigs fly.” Jimmy washed the rest of the pizza down with a swig from his glass. “The mob mentality lingers in this town. Your uncle Harry had weird friends.”
“Yeah, I know. He liked the casinos too well. And not the ritzy ones either. But DiFrancesco probably appeared legit to him. He did own a large hunk of Astro and probably half a dozen other businesses. Harry just thought he was a businessman.”.
Uncomfortably, JD thought of what else the police had told him. He’d never given his uncle enough credit. He didn’t entirely know how to deal with that realization yet.
Nina darted him a look and finally spoke. “Why was your uncle Harry in Kentucky?”
Leave it to Nina. JD sighed and swirled the drink in his glass. “DiFrancesco or our burglar tapped company phone lines. And one of his goons followed me across the country. They planned on stealing the program and doing heaven knows what with it at first, but when they ran the truck off the road, things started getting dirty. One of Harry’s buddies in the consortium must have warned Harry of his suspicions. The cops traced Harry from the Vegas airport to Nashville, where he rented a car. Harry was trying to save me.”
Silence descended on the kitchen. Nina looked as if she wanted to say something. She held her hand out, then dropped it and turned away. That’s when JD knew it was over.
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